Architect: Studio di Architettura Marco Castelletti
Project location: Como Italy
Interior design: Studio di Architettura Marco Castelletti
Landscape design: Studio di Architettura Marco Castelletti
Structural design: Ingeneer. Vittorio Montanini
HVAC design: Ingeneer. Vittorio Montanini
Lighting design: Zumtobel
Site Area: 3000 sq/mt
Built up area: 200 sq/mt
Budget: 750.000,00 euro
A near vertical site in Como, with stunning views, let Marco Castelletti nod to local Italian architecture of the thirties, whilst bringing his clients a modernist house, proportioned and segmented with precision. The project’s main idea gave the name to the building: casa del masso.” Marco Castelletti. The house, set on a steep slope above the street, can be clearly seen across the lake. The building stands by the side of the client’s old house designed by engineer Luciano Trolli in 1955, and it takes advantage of a little tract of flat land, as does the original residence. The house is linked to the street by a long flight of steps which wind along the slope and down to the house, which is organised over two floors.
Layout
The composition is based on the intersection of two volumes:
The first – facing the lake, is an horizontal structure supported by pilotis houseing all the living and bedrooms.
The second – is vertical holding the staicase and the services rooms.
On the first floor the living room crosses the house and is directly connected with the slope behind. Here the presence of a erratic boulder, in italian language “masso” (here is where the name of the house comes), protrudes into the dwelling as the characterising element of the space, so that it seems that the house is anchored to the slope at this point.
The boulder can be seen through the glass floor of the living room.
From the parking area you reach the main entrance via a flight of steps or an elevator running on the side of the garden.
After reaching the main entrance a footpath covered by a overhanging volume introduces a little hall where you can see the landscape and the monuments of the city. From here, a large staircase takes you to an atrium with the large glass window which frames the erratic boulder. The internal layout of the main dwelling faces the kitchen, the living room and some other rooms towards the lake, while bathrooms, services and the laundry are put towards the slope.
The materials used to build the house enhance the volumetric composition and the difference between the horizontal volume, suspended and completely covered by white marble dust plaster, and the vertical covered with a natural stone called Iragna, laid down in horizontal layers with different length and thickness.
The same stone was used for the external pavements, the main entrance staircase and the terrace floor on the highest level. The large windows are divided in sliding parts with electrical rolling shutters made of aluminium. Solar exposure is optimised wit hteh building orientated with its largest windows and rooms to the south, and services and bathrooms facing north.
